Contents

Summary

When Francine and Brain are locked in a stiff competition to win student of the month, Muffy talks Francine into "borrowing" Buster's toy and letting Brain take the blame for it. As the lies grow and the prize gets closer, Francine's guilt increases.

Plot

At the start of the episode, we see Francine and Muffy at a fair. They walk into a fortune telling booth and get their fortunes told by Prunella. Prunella predicts that she will have "lunch with a stranger" and then Arthur and Buster ask if they can eat lunch with the pair.

It skips to the next day and Mr. Ratburn shows the class who is the point leader for the student of the month, Francine. Mr. Ratburn then reminds the students whoever wins will get a special prize lunch with local weatherman Thunder MacDuff.

Brain gets more points added on and is now in the leader, Francine and Muffy are furious! They walk into The Ice Cream Shop and they spot Buster showing The Brain his new toy. A crude idea for vengeance comes to Muffy, to steal the toy, put it in The Brain's backpack, and frame him for it. This will cause him to lose points. Francine's conscience comes in to play, but Muffy persuades her to think evil.

Back at school Buster is playing with it and showing it off to his classmates. Francine's conscience comes in again, but once again, she gets tricked out of it by Muffy. Muffy then reminds her classmates to get to class. Francine comes in to take the toy, but gets goo on her from the toy. Her shirt and hands get stained and tries to hide it.

Class starts and Francine opens Brain's backpack and puts the toy in. Muffy turns it on and Buster notices, the Brain opens the backpack and he gets in trouble by Buster and Mr. Ratburn. The Brain unfairly loses 10 points from the Student of the Month for disrupting the class and then loses 25 more points for taking another student's possession. Since it is the last day of the month, Francine wins, but is not so proud of herself, but Muffy is.

They go to Francine's apartment, but Francine is still feeling bad thinking she will get caught. They go to Prunella's house so she can predict the future. Prunella makes up a fake prediction and Francine then thinks everything is going to turn out good.

Arthur and Buster asks Francine to help them find out who put Buster's toy in Brain's backpack and Francine starts to feel bad again and seems suspicious. But Muffy has a plan, to make Arthur and Buster seem untrustable so the next day they tape cheat sheets to their desks.

Arthur and Buster are still trying to figure out who did it.

Mr. Ratburn finds the cheat sheet by Buster and he gets in trouble. Francine cannot deal with the guilt and they turn themselves in to the principal.

Brain is given the lunch with Thunder McDuff. Francine and Muffy are forced to do community service, and The Brain invites Muffy to the lunch while Francine helps the second graders with softball practice.

Cameo

Mentioned

Trivia

Alex and Maria's names were revealed to be the two unnamed rabbit characters that have been in Mr. Ratburn's class since the first episode of the show, Arthur's Eyes. This makes Mr. Ratburn's class the only class so far in the show with all the characters named. However, Alex's name was revealed much sooner than this episode. That took place during the episode, The Scare-Your-Pants-Off Club! where he signed a petition.

Episode connections

Mr. Morris is seen when Francine is putting the cheat sheets under Buster and Arthur's desk, meaning this episode took place before "April 9th."

Francine puts a toy into Brain's backpack. Buster does the same thing to Arthur in "Nerves of Steal."

Cultural references

The main plot of this episode is based on William Shakespeare's play Macbeth. In fact, even the title is a reference to the play. Also when Francine is washing the ink stain off herself, she says "Out darn spot, out I say!" which is a quote from Macbeth.

Moon Cakes are a parody of Moon Pies.

Errors

Marina Datillo is briefly seen at one of the tables in the school eating area, however in a later scene Maria is seen sitting in the same place. It was very likely supposed to have been Maria all along, as Marina does not attend Lakewood Elementary and their names are easy to confuse.

Production notes

Arthur's yell is different in the "Francine Hits the Gong" title card.